Peoria Prayer Center

Peoria Prayer Center Moving Forward What has been happening? Over the last year and a half many of us have gone through numerous transitions and changes.  If you are like me your daily life has gone through numerous alterations.  I have gone through health issues, car accidents, new employment, changes in my family dynamics, loss of friends and the gaining of others, new church life dynamics and battles with technology and production.  I could describe my life as a new theme park ride, one that combines a rollercoaster, a merry go round and some kind of superman in the dark ride. Until recently I would have told you that I didn’t know what I was doing, I was trying to be faithful and obey the Lord.  Then in a season of mercy from God, I felt Him enlighten me on His ways and reveal to me that I have been on His plan for discipleship.  I have often said, “God uses our daily life to disciple us.”  I now know that on a much deeper level....

Christ Jesus is an overcomer; He defeated His enemy and wins the battle and the legal case (Two aspects of overcoming in the Bible).  We are call to be people of God who overcome also.  We are to be those who defeat the works of Satan and who labor so that the Kingdom of God comes to earth.  Most followers of Jesus Christ believe that we should overcome.  We also differ vastly in how we are to overcome.  We may have a Biblical view, or one given by revelation, or one broadcast by Christian culture or from the cultural christianity that we are in. Most likely we have a mixture of Bible, revelation, opinion and culture.  So how can we move toward maturity?  How can we see advancement in our renewed mind?  How can we walk more and more in transformation? I believe the answer is prayer.  Contemplative prayer is a tool used by the people of God for centuries for maturing in the faith and living the lives God asked of them.  Contemplative...

Jesus failed in maximizing his life.  For 30 years he lived in hiddeness.  There were years where the sick died, the blind did not see and where the gospel of the kingdom was not proclaimed.   Even after he began his public ministry,  Jesus failed to do all that he could do. Why? As the spirit of consumerism grows, so does the notion that Christianity is a religion of choosing.   It is popular to use Christianity as a tool for self-fulfillment or personal significance.  "Be all you can be" is a popular expressed moto for good Christian living.  But Jesus was not all that he could have been.  Why? The water of life does not flow based on being productive.  Life flows from obedience to God and God values relationship.  Loving God is an activity that results in holiness and if your love for God is not producing a more virtuous you, then it is not authentic love.  This unproductive,  productive lifestyle of waiting, res...

Join me from 7 - 8 am on Saturday the 27th of July for an hour of prayer for central IL.  Bring some hopes and scriptures to pray though as well as a few tears to shed.  We will meet along the IL river behind Wal-Mart in E Peoria.  I plan on parking next to the park (bathrooms are there) and stopping to pray at the first bench available.  Bring your favorite morning drink, maybe your lawn chair and join with me and the Lord for an hour of intercession.   https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

I work a lot with sinners.  Most of them are like me and don't think much about there sin.  As "God lovers," "church goers," and "people of prayer" we tend to live with sin but not think of it much.  We have been trained in the last few decades to see ourselves in many ways other that as a sinners. I know that a foundational prayer for the church was, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner," but we are trained not to think that way now. I've been rebuked by leaders for dealing with myself as a sinner.  I've also been repuked for dealing with others as sinners. In the text I photocliped you can see how a sinner king was known for moving God in intercession,  sin and righteousness.  I think I have been like that.  I have seen answered prayer, sinned and had God work through me righteously. So if my reality is three things do I need to only acknowledge one?  Is the triune God only Jesus?  My agenda is this: if we don't openly acknowledge ...

Have you ever taken a day or several hours and inquired from the Lord His emotions toward you?  Without using what you have been told, without choosing the answers from scripture or someones teachings,  you wait on God to speak.  Reading the Psalms can help your heart to hear how kind and how severe the Master can be. But why do this?  Why not build our lives upon the words of others?  Why should we wait on God to hear, when we can read the scripture and choose what He is saying to us?  The answer is reality! Why build your life on second hand revelation or assumption.   Have the courage to hear the truth from God himself.   Offer your presumption on the alter of sacrifice and give your lifes time to God through active listening.  His harshest words are grace to you.  Even expressions of anger will bless your life. I love the Church.  The church is not the Lord and when the leaders of the church desire the body to hear ...

In Luke 20 leaders are wondering "by what authority" Jesus was doing what He was doing.  Today we do this too.  We wonder about our lives and what right God has to withhold, to require, to judge or to love.  We often believe that the events of our lives should be based on our faith, our labor or our status.  When God acts is ways different than our intentions, we wonder by what authority He is working. Luke 20:1-8 ESV One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up  (2)  and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority."  (3)  He answered them, "I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, (4)  was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" (5)  And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?'  (6)  But if...